Daniel Lang
Wed Developer/Designer, Mavrick Web Design + Freelance

Written by Douglas Hainstock on 2008-10-21

What do you see happening in the next five years in the Web Design industry?

The web is evolving each day and as we come into the new era of web 2.0 and html 5.0 we’ll see some big changes on how we design and build web sites.

What are the biggest challenges you and your organisation face as a member of the Brisbane media community?

Having something unique that our completion can’t copy and offering the best Australian based web hosting.

How long have you been in or interested the Web Design industry? and how did you learn your skills?

Well ever since year 10 they asked me what I wanted to do for the rest of my future career, I knew then and there it was programming and web design; 7 years and counting.

All self taught, they do not teach you what I know in a public school. I had an I.T. class, but they were using VB. I almost got expelled for creating a fake Novell Login screen to capture students and teacher’s usernames and passwords.

I taught myself using a form of trial and error. I started out with FrontPage and Flash. Then found a neat program called: Dreamweaver 3. To this day I use Dreamweaver CS3. I was right into gaming at the time and had started up a small ‘Clan’ for a game called: StarCraft – It soon turned into a member group of 500+ and I was editing all their profile manually. This became and timely task especially whilst I was still at school. So I learnt php. I used forums and the php.net website; I still use the php.net web site today.

How would you rate the performance of Brisbane-based media organisations in comparison to other national and international media hubs?

The Australian web industry in way behind the times; the reason for this is I foresee is the lack of options for the web design industry in our schools and universities. Don’t hold that too me though, I’ve never been to Uni.

New Zealand and the U.K. have far superior web based industries. If I could drop what I am doing tomorrow I’d get a job doing web design in the U.K.

How has new media such as the Internet and mobile communications revolutionised your workplace?

Well we work with the internet each day so we would not be here without it. The new mobile phones of today are great; I can be away from my office and still receive important emails and messages as well as take a phone call.

Do you see yourself perusing this career in the future or are you thinking about changing to another profession, and why?

I hope to still be doing this in the near future if things go to plan. I’ve never really sat down and thought about another career path, so I can’t answer your question entirely.

What has been your most interesting job so far and why?

I am currently working on a full real-estate listing management system for a private client. This system is being built in such a way that it connects all real-estate agents and real-estate websites via one web application. I guess the interesting part is seeing how it will perform in the open market once it is complete.